Tag: James River
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Going with the Flow: Geology’s Fall Departmental Field Trip 2022
Last weekend the Geology Department set forth on our Fall departmental trip for a geological field trip down the James River in canoes. The late summer weather was glorious, and the James River’s flow was just right– not too high and not too low. On Friday evening, our crew of 22 camped along the James…
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A Frenzy of Fall Field Trips 2: Flowing Low and Flying High
Earlier this summer I reported on the Gladstone Gladiators’ ‘games’ on and over the James River, all part of our research campaign to decipher and map the geology in the central Virginia Piedmont. On that trip, we used a drone to acquire aerial imagery of rock structures exposed in the river bottom while we paddled…
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A Flood of Fun: The W&M Geology Department Field Trip on the James River
Our Fall Geology Department field trip set out from Williamsburg to central Virginia, and the James River for a geological float trip down the river. The autumn weather was close to perfect, and our crew of 30+ students were ready for a fluvial adventure. We camped at Hatton Ferry, pitching our tents on a patch…
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Reunited!
This is an ode to a canoe. A year ago today, on July 14th 2015, I abandoned my canoe in the James River at the base of the Fall Zone’s last rapid in downtown Richmond. The canoe was partially submerged and unceremoniously folded around a granitic outcrop. We were 180-km into a 300-km paddle trip…
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Summer Solstice in the Field: A River on Rock
Summer is not a quiet time in the William & Mary Geology department. Pop onto the 2nd floor of McGlothlin-Street Hall this summer and you’ll find a bevy of undergraduates pursuing research on an array of topics including paleoclimatology, geochemistry, petrology, hydrology, paleontology, coastal geology, and structural geology. After a few weeks of indoor work,…
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Paddle Trip Report 3 – The Long Dash for Home
The last post ended with my canoe trapped and broken on a granite outcrop at the base of the Fall Zone in Richmond, Virginia. I was on an 8-day journey by canoe from the Blue Ridge Foothills to Williamsburg; a middle-aged journey to mark the 30th anniversary of my arrival as a student at William…
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Paddle Trip Report 2 – Across the Piedmont and Fall Zone
At the end of my last post we’d completed the first two days of an 8-day canoe trip from the Blue Ridge Foothills in central Virginia to Williamsburg, and were tucked in on a gravelly island in the middle of the Rivanna River. DAY 3- Rivanna Rain The rain returned during the night. Day 3…
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The Department that Floats Together…
The latest addition of the Geology departmental field trip rolled out of Williamsburg last Friday and then floated down the James River on Saturday. The weather in the Mid-Atlantic region was iffy. A stalled frontal system bolstered an on-shore flow of moist air, but a spot of rain here and there did not deter the…
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Summer Research: Introducing the Buckmarlson Banshees
Try to find Buckmarlson on a map and you won’t have much luck. It’s the newly created place name for our field area in Virginia’s west-central Piedmont. Buckmarlson is a portmanteau word we created based on the names of the three counties in which our geologic studies are taking place: Buckingham, Albemarle, and Nelson counties.…
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Down the James in Three Days
The James River’s basin spans much of Virginia. Its headwaters start amongst the high ridges of the Allegheny Mountains, and the river system covers some 700 kilometers (~400 miles) before debouching into the Chesapeake Bay at Hampton Roads. The river crosses four of Virginia’s five geologic provinces and exposes a wide array of rocks. Outcrops…
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Down a Lazy River
The Geology Department has a tradition of Departmental field trips that explore the landscape and geologic underpinnings of many locations in the mid-Atlantic region. This field trip is open to all, involving curious students in their first geology class as well as a core of seasoned students and a cadre of faculty. Last weekend the…